Mayor of Preservation

Bloomberg Is Tops on Historic Designations; Critics See Excessive Planning

By

Laura Kusisto

March 31, 2013 8:51 p.m. ET

Mayor
Michael Bloomberg
's
administration has quietly preserved more of New York City's architecture than any of his predecessors, redefining how historic sites are protected and putting in an additional measure of control over development.

During the three-term Bloomberg era, 41 historic districts have been added or extended—as the number of sites rose to 127 from 86 in 2002.
Rudolph Giuliani
created or extended 18 districts over two terms at City Hall, and
Ed Koch
27 in his three terms as mayor.

ENLARGE

The Wall Street Journal

Under Robert Tierney, appointed chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission by Mr. Bloomberg, the city has placed less emphasis on granting individual structures historic status and more on designating entire districts. The result: Two percent of the city is now encompassed by the districts, and 10% of Manhattan.

After the commission made historic districts of the more obvious brownstone-lined neighborhoods, however, critics have suggested some of its more recent decisions seemed based more on guiding development than preserving areas where the buildings have a consistent style or even architectural merit.

In some of the recent districts, "it's an action that seems to be more driven by planning concerns. There's very little in the way of connection with any historic period," said Michael Slattery, of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Mr. Tierney took issue with that characterization. "We don't do historic designations to stop development or to control development," he said. "Historic preservation starts from eligibility of cultural importance and character."

Still, many observers agree that the Bloomberg administration's use of historic districts—which often allow new buildings only if they are in scale with existing structures—has evolved as a counterweight to the mayor's pro-development policies that have transformed swaths of the city.

"The mayor understood if you're going to encourage development, you have to force preservation," said
Mitchell Moss,
a New York University urban planning and policy professor.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission was established in 1965 by Mayor Robert Wagner, a couple of years after the razing of Pennsylvania Station. A number of the early districts it created, such as Greenwich Village and SoHo, are now some of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city.

In the last decade, from Sunnyside Gardens in Queens to Stapleton Heights in Staten Island, from parts of Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side to Crown Heights in Brooklyn, the landmarks commission has preserved neighborhoods in all five boroughs, with varying income levels and a potpourri of architectural styles.

Conflicts have arisen from many of those decisions, including designations for the Brooklyn Skyscraper District and the newest district on the Lower East Side and the East Village. The latest preservation clash is taking shape in Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, a neighborhood lined with row houses that has seen an influx of young professionals in recent years.

The push for the landmark designation came from residents, who said they objected to the construction of bland, modern brick buildings without the front stoops that had helped create a community feel.

"This is a very old-fashioned sort of neighborhood where everybody says hello, where people sit on the stoop," said Claudette Brady of the Bedford Stuyvesant Society for Historic Preservation. "A lot of it was about new buildings—three-story things that were set back two feet or three feet from the street. Just god-ugly things."

ENLARGE

Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at a news in March.
Getty Images

But others say the new permits required for many renovations in a historic district would place an undue burden on homeowners and churches in the area, especially because many of its residents are elderly or have modest incomes.

"It's nothing short of invasion with no public input," said Rev. Johnny Ray Youngblood, of the Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. "You cannot modernize without permission, and if you do get permission, the bureaucratic red tape that you need to go through is crazy."

The landmarks commission's role has evolved under Mr. Tierney, a mild-mannered former public affairs professor named to the commission by Mr. Bloomberg in 2003.

Mr. Tierney highlighted the commission's focus outside Manhattan, which he said had been too much about that borough for decades. Of the designations during Mr. Bloomberg's term, 54% were outside of Manhattan.

He also said it has worked to strike a balance between increased demand for new construction in a prosperous city and preserving its past.

"I don't oppose change. I think that change is fundamental to the core of the city, but it can occur in different forms and ways. There is appropriate change," Mr. Tierney said. "Inappropriate gentrification tends to occur where there's no holds barred and there are no serious constraints on one's ability to change the environment."

Between fiscal year 2003 and 2012, the commission's budget rose to $4.8 million from $3 million, allowing it to increase its staff to 60 employees from 43.

Many say the change under Mr. Tierney began with the creation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District—in the Meatpacking District—which was created in 2003. The commission created a district covering a number of low-rise former warehouse buildings, which some argued didn't merit historic status.

But Mr. Moss said preserving those buildings was largely responsible for the area's revitalization. Landmark status there "guided development on a north-south corridor, while keeping the core as a pedestrian experience," he said. "It's gone from being a crime-ridden corridor to one of the meccas of the city," Mr. Moss said.

Making a neighborhood a historic district doesn't stop development, but it does make it impossible for developers to raze many of the existing structures and requires them to seek commission approval for new ones on vacant lots.

"It limits any future development without having to assess what that economic impact may be," Mr. Slattery said.

A new coalition, led by the Real Estate Board of New York, is pressing for changes to the historic-districts process, which its members said would provide public input similar to the rezoning process. They want the commission to be required to release a draft designation report well before the public hearing, create a clear time frame for the designation process and require that no more than 10% of any proposed district consist of vacant lots or significantly altered buildings.

Mr. Tierney said he's met with opponents and is open to considering their concerns—but not slowing the pace of creating historic districts in the city.

"That's totally going in the opposite direction that I've been going in. I can't imagine this city without its historic districts and its great iconic landmark buildings," Mr. Tierney said.

With Mr. Bloomberg in the closing months of his third term, that decision will rest partly with Mr. Tierney's successor in the next administration.

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